Tuesday, 22 July 2008

The time is now right for corporations to start using Google Apps. Cut costs and simplify your IT all at the same time.

I read last month that 1.5 Million Australian students are dumping Outlook/Exchange for Gmail. I also saw this week that the venerable British newspaper the Telegraph is swapping Microsoft for Google for its 1400 users. Is this a tipping point? It is a tough business climate out there. As well as server-virtualisation and server-reduction, maybe now is the time for application-virtualisation and application-reduction. Is Microsoft's monopoly coming to an end? I only use 10% of the functionality in Microsoft Office so Google Apps suits me fine. I use it on my corporate website yellowconsulting.co.uk and because I am a knowledge worker, using my knowledge is how I make money. So if I am worrying about whether my infrastructure is up to the job then I am not making money.

Microsoft Office is successful due to its heroin selling model. Low barrier to entry, but once you start using it, it is difficult to stop. It is hard enough for me to persuade my wife to use something else (which I have now done) so I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a company like the Telegraph to do so.

I salute the Australian education board and the Telegraph for their brave move. There will be a lot of corporates watching closely to see how the move goes. I have been a user of Gmail and GCalendar since the first day they came out. I have not been dissappointed and I am sure you will not be either.